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Sale 122
Lot 1675
Australia. Sovereign, 1855 (Sydney). Fr-9; KM-2. Victoria. Filleted young head left. Reverse; Crown above AUSTRALIA within wreath. Rarest date of a two year type. Extremely Rare in Mint State. PCGS: SS Central America Pop 1, none finer; Regular: Pop 1; 2 finer, 1 in 63, 1 in 64. PCGS graded MS-62+. In special PCGS Ship of Gold holder which contains One Pinch of Gold Dust recovered from the S.S. Central America treasure.
Special PCGS number 670835.62+/34510971. Estimated Value $25,000 - UP
In the early 1850s Australia experienced several major gold rushes in the colonies of Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, and Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania), some of which almost certainly provided the bullion for this gold sovereign struck at the Sydney mint in New South Wales. Although Sydney had petitioned the British Government for its own branch mint already in 1851, this was only approved by Queen Victoria in 1853. The new Sydney Mint was established in the south wing of the city's Rum Hospital for convicts-so called because it was built in 1810-1816 with the financial assistance of a consortium of businessmen who were granted a monopoly on rum imports. Before it became the mint, the south wing had largely served as surgeons' quarters and a temporary military hospital.
The present coin, struck in 1855, represents the very first official gold coin struck in Australia. The Adelaide Pound had been struck already by the Government Assay Office of South Australia in 1852, but this was a regional response to the lack of gold coin in the colony undertaken without the approval of the British Government. The 1855 gold sovereign is remarkable not only for marking the beginning of gold coin production at the Sydney mint, but for several features of its design. The reverse is notable for its prominent use of the full name of the mint (usually abbreviated on issues of other British colonial mints) and especially for the legend naming Australia rather than New South Wales. This would seem to indicate that the coinage was intended for use throughout Australia and not just within the colony in which it was produced. At the time, this was very forward thinking since the Australian colonies did not become united under a single government until the Federation of Australia on 1 January 1901.
Interestingly, in the same year that the first sovereigns of the Sydney mint entered production, fallout from earlier problems with the Australian gold rushes were being settled. In 1854, tensions had risen in the Victoria gold fields over the high cost of government mining licenses, which amounted to taxation without representation. This resulted in the Eureka Rebellion in Ballaarat, Victoria, in which 500 miners led by Peter Lalor, opposed colonial authorities from behind a makeshift stockade. The stockade was besieged and taken by elements of the British Army and the Victoria Police on 3 December 1854 and the rebels arrested. They were placed on trial for high treason in Melbourne in February 1855, but found not guilty by the jury, which largely supported their views. Peter Lalor was subsequently elected without opposition to the Victorian Legislative Council in November 1855.
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| Realized $55,200 |
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